A blessing, the beach and D-land.

My Dad took this photo.  I love it.  Kate looks so beautiful!

One of the rare moments of peace and tranquility. :)

The star of the weekend held by his favorite Aunt--Me!!

 

My favorite Brother Jeff, his gorgeous wife Meredith and their adorable baby. 

Sweet Cousins.

Just another day at the Beach.  

The tired gang on the way out of D-land.

Jackson's Birthday: Lucky number 7!

Jackson prayed that I would make his cake the way he wanted it. No pressure. I am not a professional cake maker by any means but I've felt pretty confidant (in the past) in my ability to produce an edible as well as semi-attractive cake to accompany birthday festivities. But Jackson praying over his cake, well, that made me extremely jittery. Luckily, he was satisfied with the results of my effort and next year I will re-double my efforts to sell him on ice-cream or Costco cakes. I'm not sure I could handle that kind of expectation again!

No, we don't put black marks on our children when they are naughty (people would think that Jackson was BLACK). Jackson had his face painted at school and it was difficult to persuade him to wash it. I wonder how old boys have to be to like to be clean? Hmm. Anyway, Jackson chose to celebrate dinner over chinese food at China Mama's. We had a great time.

Happy Birthday, Jackson! I love, love, love you! Enjoy your lucky 7!

Easter

The stilts were obviously a male Easter Bunny's idea.

Ella could walk on them right away. The girl has got some skills.

I shoot bunnies.

I eat bunnies.

Had a moral debate with myself about posting a pic of Jackson in his briefs. Then I realized that if I were to have an embarrassing picture to blackmail him with, it might add some leverage to my parenting strategy. I have no shame.

Easter Egg hunting: note that it is almost impossible for any of the kids to look at the camera. Also, note that it is impossibly cruel of Mom to take a picture when there are candy-filled egg goodies to be found.

Easter Eggs Dye-ing:

We believe in cross-aproning in this family.

Intense concentration: We take our Easter Eggs seriously.

FYI- It took two days to get the green color out of his hand. Max believes the perfect Easter egg is created only with the "hands-on" approach. And who am I to question his green genius?

Why post Easter in May?

I'm behind, obviously. I feel like I've been running solid for the last 3 weeks in a hamster wheel and it doesn't matter how fast I run--I'm still not getting anywhere. So, I will at least attempt to catch up my blog posts. I'm sorry to those who casually read my blog--this is more for my family history than entertainment purposes. Fasten your seat belts, get some popcorn and a pillow and let's hope you don't fall asleep before I do...

Kate's Birthday--10 YEARS OLD!

I can't believe my baby is ten years old--double digits--as she likes to point out and two years until she can babysit (also her).  It's kind of crazy!  Luckily, this year we got to spend the whole day together since it was spring break.  I let her choose what she wanted to eat for each meal and an activity that we could do together.  We had waffles for breakfast, Arby's for lunch and taquitos for dinner.  We spent the day at Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix and had a great time.  The girls drove go-carts on the "fast" track.  It was the first time either of them had been behind the wheel and both Robert and I were worried.  The first couple of times around the tracks both Kate & Ella had looks of sheer terror but after a few passes they were grinning.  The boys had fun on their track too and Jackson was convinced he "won".   The kids rode a tame roller coaster, slid down slides and a few other rides.  They played Air Hockey and Max pretended to shoot his gun at bad guys.  We came home and opened presents and gorged ourselves on cake and ice-cream.  A great day and a Happy Birthday.  We love you Kate.  Here's to a lot more birthdays!

Hawaii Chicks

I think Robert may be having a mid-life crisis and it involves Chickens.  Not the delicious marinated, grilled kind--no, no--the-loud-smelly-egg-laying variety.  I cannot fathom this.  I have tried.  I have tried to see the appeal and to feel the utter joy and contentment he feels when they lay an egg.

So I asked, "Where does this new obsession with chickens come from?"
He responds,"What new obsession? I've always liked Chicks."

He gets a "har--har" from me but that's about it.  The fact is--it's weird.  He always wants to talk about his chickens.  All I can figure is that it is a throw-back gene from the pioneer-cross-the-plains days.

So we had a great time in Hawaii--maybe a little too much chicken talk but what can you do?  It's a mid-life crisis.

Jackson learns the "F" word...

It was Sunday and the weather was lovely.  Or as Ella says, "I love it when the weather is medium Mom."  And it was perfectly medium--not hot and not cold.  So we decided to take a desert appreciation walk.  Also, the kids had just sat through 3 hours of church and may have killed each other had we not left the house.  We decided to explore the desert behind our subdivision--the last frontier.  We noticed the landscape is being graded for development and wanted to enjoy the wide open space while we could.   We found desert apples, sharp cacti, and interesting rocks.  We even saw three jack rabbits!  

It was an exciting, wholesome adventure until we decided to explore the "bridge".  Jackson, who is always running ahead called back to me: "Hey, Mom what does F--- You mean?"  So thank you Punk who decided to spray paint the wall with such creative language.  I really enjoyed trying to get around explaining what that meant to my 6 year old.   I hope you have the same experience with your child some day and that your child has lots of blow-out diapers, colic and dumps honey all over your carpet and then wipes his hands on your dry-clean only couch and then finds the scissors and cuts up your favorite shirt.  The end.